https://www.skysports.com/football/n...eat-to-man-utd
Just read this and it seems Mikel intends to stick with the trio as our starting midfield.....ok then, it seems we'll have a lot of draws to look forward to.
https://www.skysports.com/football/n...eat-to-man-utd
Just read this and it seems Mikel intends to stick with the trio as our starting midfield.....ok then, it seems we'll have a lot of draws to look forward to.
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Last edited by 21_GOONER_SALUTE; 23-07-2023 at 09:03 AM.
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
Havertz strikea me as a player who will go missing, Odegaard does too sometimes, for all that i didn't like Xhaka he was always looking to get involved, even if it was quite often in the wrong way
Zinchenko's a waste of space so i think the idea of both Rice and Jorg/Partey could work at times
I'm thinking we ahould probably keep Partey after all, just as an extra option, if we manage his minutea maybe we can keep him fitter
Last edited by Mac76; 23-07-2023 at 10:05 AM.
I think all the statistics people point to as to what Zinchenko does for the team are more about his passing in midfield, even his staunchest defenders concede that he’s absolutely terrible as a defender. My preference would be to keep him to play in the No 8 role (not first choice), have Tierney as first choice left back and Tomoyasu as the backup option.
As for Havertz and Rice, well one can argue that Havertz is adapting to that role, but why on Earth pay 65 million for someone in the hope that they can do so when arguably you could get someone already familiar with it for much cheaper, I’d love to be proved wrong but it feels Galaxy brained, Arteta ignoring the basics in his drive to be smarter than his counterparts. Can’t really say much about Rice, as I thought he played ok…I thought despite a lack of defensive support from almost anyone he made a lot of decent interceptions and looked tidy in possession.
I do think a striker stands out as a necessity, we have a lot of decent attacking players but what we don’t have is a clinical finisher.
I also think the system we play makes us vulnerable to pace and the long ball, and we clearly need to adapt
Again this might be precipitous based on one game
But not only would I sell Vieira I’d sell Smith Rowe and have Havertz be the backup to Odegaard (if he goes missing it’s less likely to be costly in our half)
Have Rice and Partey as our first choice central midfield, Zinchenko and Jorginho as our back up options
Then buy a striker, have Jesus play more on the right and bring in a lump…someone like Mitrovic or the other Serbian lad at Juventus
Last edited by HCZ_Reborn; 23-07-2023 at 10:20 AM.
Yeah Mitro seems keen to leave Fulham and he could work well for us, trouble is I don't get the sense we're even looking for that type of striker which is worrying
Arteta's been talking about our mixing it up more and being flexible in team and tactics but at the front, our buying strategy so far doesn't show it
I think when he says mix it up, he means that a lot of the players have the ability to play in multiple positions within this one unchangeable system he prefers. Therefore I suspect someone who is a route one striker probably doesn’t appeal to him.
On the whole though with the exception of lacking that, I actually like the make up of our squad albeit needs serious pruning. And therefore unlike when things went south for Emery, I think if Arteta fucks it up…I don’t think his replacement has a massive rebuild to do….which is a definite positive.
When it comes to buying an out and out striker, I am struggling to be convinced on this unless we go for the best.
Jesus, Eddie, Balogun and maybe Kai will get you goals....not the numbers of Haaland and Kane, but I honestly think when you play for a top side with the way top teams play nowadays, it is very difficult to reach those numbers unless you are truly exceptional.
Definitely none of our current strikers would rank as my favourite Arsenal players, despite that I get what they offer and still think we could win trophies with them.
Anyway, Arteta has shown no inkling for going for a Mitrovic kind of player so probably no need to debate this..... but yeah I get we really need to mix it up somehow and add the other dimension to our game this season or everyone will just set themselves up the same way to play us.
Last edited by 21_GOONER_SALUTE; 23-07-2023 at 10:48 AM.
Really yeah I’m kind of looking for someone in the Giroud mould, not necessarily someone who like Henry is just going to get 30 goals a season…strikers of that quality seem to be subject to the same forces of inflation that bedevil the global economy that demand far exceeds supply. But Someone slightly better at scoring ugly scrappy goals from set pieces (but yeah we seem to agree that, this is not an Arteta type of signing)
We all know we’d love an Mbappe, but we also know that whilst it’s not purely fanciful it’s also highly unlikely
Eddie is not up to it and should be sold for whatever we can get, for as long as we have him there's a danger Arteta will use him - he's lower PL/Championship material
We should give Balogun a real go, he has much more potential though he doesn't deal with the issue of a lack of a tall striker
Jesus is a tricky one, I think he more than anyone triggered our great start to last season but he's just too profligate in front of goal, I think his future is maybe on the wing
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